Money can’t buy you happiness -- unless you spend it on these headphones

Bowers & Wilkins’ first step into the world of portable audio is less like a step and more like an orbital leap. B&W has always been applauded for rich sound and contemporary design, but its first headphones to hit the market, the P5s, are so far ahead of the times that they feel avant-garde.

If our suspicions are correct and the P5s are really from the future, you might want to sell your stock in plastics. There’s not a bit of the stuff to be found in these headphones -- the P5s are crafted almost entirely from brushed metal and New Zealand sheep leather. The leather earpads fit snugly against your ears, offering a good deal of passive noise isolation without the background buzz of active noise cancellation.

The P5s are crafted from quality aluminum and sheep.

And speaking of buzz, the P5s do a good job of directing sound toward your ear, and not out the back of the headphones. This allowed for some serious head-banging sessions in the office without annoying the editor-in-chief who sits right behind me. We were able to easily control an iPod with the P5’s inline remote, and had no trouble taking calls. On the other hand, the short length and wimpy feel of the headphone cable is annoying. Since the cable is easily replaceable, the problem is somewhat mitigated, but at this price point we expect superb build quality in everything, including wires.

Thankfully, our disappointment with the cable only lasted as long as it took to hear what comes through them. These cans sound so pristine you’ll want to listen to ’em on full tilt.  Even cranked to unholy levels, the P5s retain their clarity, pumping out high volume without distorting. If you’re used to thumpy headphones that emphasize the low end (Monster’s Beats by Dr. Dre, for example), the P5s will sound a bit flat. But their neutral tone allows you to hear even the smallest details in your tracks -- including the limits of MP3 files encoded with low bit rates.

The bottom line. Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphones aren’t for the audio consumer, they’re for the connoisseur. Everything about the P5s is solid and full -- including the intended audience’s wallets. The $300 price point might be hard to justify on paper, but one listen, and you’ll be sold.